Britain’s general election speculation on overdrive as PM Sunak chairs Cabinet meet

London: Speculation around the UK general election being around the corner, possibly in early July, went on overdrive on Wednesday as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called a Cabinet meeting for which ministers rather unusually cut short foreign visits and changed their plans last-minute to ensure they can attend.

In Parliament, Sunak stuck to his stance of a general election in the “second half of this year” when asked during his weekly Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) in the House of Commons.

However, UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps delayed his flight to attend a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) meeting and Foreign Secretary David Cameron cut short his visit to Albania to be in London for a Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street, curious activity soon being connected with the prospect of an election date announcement in the offing.

“As I have said repeatedly, there is — spoiler alert — going to be a general election in the second half of this year,” Sunak told MPs in the Commons.

“At that moment, the British people will in fact see the truth… it will be a party [Labour] that is not

able to say to the country what it would do, a party that would put at risk our hard-earned economic stability, or the Conservatives who are delivering a secure future for our United Kingdom,” he said.

The frenzied speculation comes on the day Sunak had some good news on the economy with inflation figures dropping to 2.3 per cent, the lowest in three years and in line with the British

Indian leader’s pledge to cut inflation by more than half from the 11 per cent mark when he took charge in October 2022.